Comparison of the sensitivity to thioacetazone of tubercle bacilli from patients in Britain, East Africa, South India and Hong Kong.
Mitchison, D.A.; Lloyd, Janet.
Tubercle; 1964; 45; 360-369.
Sensitivity tests to thioacetazone were done on cultures of tubercle bacilli obtained from 23 British, 27 East African, 30 South Indian and 48 Hong Kong patients with less than 11 days of previous antituberculosis chemotherapy and with isoniazid-sensitive organisms and from 38 Hong Kong patients with more than 14 days previous chemotherapy and/or isoniazid-resistant organisms. The results were expressed in three ways, one of which was the minimal concentration of thioacetazone inhibiting growth, where growth is defined as a viable count of 0.1 per cent of the count on drug-free medium (the 0.1% MIC).
The 0.1% MIC was 1 µg/ml. thioacetazone or more with 13% of the British cultures, 19% of the African cultures, 73% of the Indian cultures and 70% of the Hong Kong cultures. The other assessments of sensitivity to thioacetazone also indicated that the Indian and the Hong Kong cultures were more resistant to thioacetazone than the British and the African cultures. No associations were found between the sensitivity to thioacetazone and the sensitivity to isoniazid or to streptomycin in the Hong Kong cultures. Thioacetazone-resistant cultures from Indian patients were more often of low virulence in the guinea pig than sensitive cultures, but no such association was found in the 15 Hong Kong cultures tested.
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